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Defying all odds, Toronto school trustee Irene Atkinson has recovered so much from the smoke inhalation that left her on life support in March that she has been able to move out of hospital and into the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute.

The resilient trustee of nearly 40 years will spend a month as an in-patient at the University Ave. facility doing intensive therapy six days a week, said her daughter Maggie Atkinson, a former lawyer and AIDS activist who has been by her mother’s side since she was admitted to hospital after fire broke out March 16 at her mother’s stately High Park home.

“My younger sister Julie says it is a miracle that my mother has survived and got to this point,” said Maggie, one of Irene’s three daughters. Juliana Rumak has taken a leave of absence from her work as a pastry chef in Victoria, B.C., to help with her mother.

“In some ways, since the accident, every day has been Mother’s Day,” mused Maggie. “At least one of my sisters and me has been with her each day.”

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Atkinson’s third daughter, Pamela Evans, is a teacher-librarian with the Toronto District School Board where Atkinson has represented the Parkdale High Park neighbourhood for decades.

While the cause of the fire is still under investigation, Maggie said the worst damage in the kitchen was near the toaster oven and coffee maker. Irene Atkinson’s beloved cat Tigger died of smoke inhalation during the fire. Another woman had to be rescued from an upper floor because smoke prevented her exit.

“We were very pleased our mother was able to graduate to this next step in her recovery,” said Maggie. “She finds it surprising that so many people have taken an interest in her recovery. She still cannot remember the fire, though she does know now that it happened.”

Although the fire was only in the kitchen, much of the house has had to be gutted because of extensive smoke and soot damage, said Maggie, who plans to have her mother live with her after her stay at the rehab centre.

“We still do not know the cause of the fire, though the worst damage in the kitchen was near the toaster oven and coffee maker.”

Close friend MPP Cheri DiNovo (Parkdale-High Park) visited Atkinson in hospital last week and told members of the legislature that the feisty champion of public education was on the mend.

“When I first visited Irene after the fire, she was on a ventilator, in an induced coma, and we feared the worst,” recalled DiNovo, an ordained United Church minister. “Now, thanks to prayer . . . and an unbelievable array of support and, Irene would say so herself, the love and care of her three wonderful daughters . . . Irene is up and walking and right back to her feisty self. That’s our Irene.”

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